Stocks in Asia slide despite Wall Street strength

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slid 42.84 points or 0.21% to close Thursday at 20,552.31.

The Shanghai Composite lost 15.81 points or 0.55% to 2,867.92.

In Hong Kong the Hang Seng fell 119.91 points or 0.49% to 24,280.03.

SYDNEY, NSW, Australia - Stocks in Asia were in retreat on Thursday despite good gains on Wall Street, and in Europe and the UK overnight.

"Equities are still in an uptrend, but the pace of the rebound has been a little quick and we are running into resistance," Kiyoshi Ishigane, chief fund manager at Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co in Tokyo told the Reuters Thomson news agency on Thursday.

"The services sector has been decimated. The level of unemployed suggests this recovery will take some time."

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slid 42.84 points or 0.21% to close Thursday at 20,552.31.

The Shanghai Composite lost 15.81 points or 0.55% to 2,867.92.

In Hong Kong the Hang Seng fell 119.91 points or 0.49% to 24,280.03.

The Australian All Ordinaried slipped 19.20 points or 0.20% to 5,660.90.

The euro was unchanged at 1./0970 during the Asian session Thursday. The British pound dipped top 1.2213. The Japanese yen was little chan ged at 107.71. The Swiss franc firmed a tad to 0.9662.

The Canadian dollar was slightly weaker at 1.3931. The Australian dollar slipped to 0.6565. The New Zealand dollar eased to 0.6118.